Charcoal Oven

2701 Northwest Expressway
Oklahoma City, OK
(405) 722-7588

Note:
Several of my recent visits were to the location at 5911 Northwest Expressway, which has been closed
since 2009.

The Charcoal Oven was one of the restaurants that started a trend in the 1950's and 60's by serving
charcoal broiled hamburgers at a pickup window that patrons then either had to take home or eat in the
car. With Oklahoma's variable and extreme weather, I am not sure who it is that thought it would be a
good idea to eat meals in the car, but the idea was quite popular with people of my generation, and
the Charcoal Oven did a good business with those high school students who were able to leave campus
for lunch.

I always thought Charcoal Oven served one of the best Charcoal Broiled Hamburgers. This
is a flame broiled burger with hickory sauce on top (other sauces are available, but I do not
think the burger would be the same with anything else). The hickory sauce is a sweet tomato based
sauce that tastes more like barbecue sauce than the traditional ketchup often served on burgers. The
Split-T restaurant that used to be on Western Avenue may have originated this sauce in the OKC area,
but Charcoal Oven developed its own version. The Charcoal Oven seems to have slipped in
quality in recent years (or maybe my memories of the burgers in my high school days have been
colored by the time that has passed), but it is still pretty good. The main thing I think could be
improved at Charcoal Oven is the quality of the burger pattie. Even the good sauce is not enough
to make me crave the burger served here.

Charcoal Oven also seems to be lacking in the customer service department. Besides the fact that
they charge high prices and do not provide any place to eat besides your car and a couple of outside
tables, there are other factors that leave me less than anxious to return. One is the practice of charging
for a glass of water. I feel that a meal here is probably unhealthy enough with a burger and fries that I
do not want to compound the harm with a pop, and it is really unfair of them to charge for water.

The Charcoal Oven is really more of a novelty restaurant than a place I would seriously advise
out-of-towners to try, but the burgers are pretty good, and are representative of the charcoal
broiled burgers that are served in few places besides Oklahoma. The Charcoal Oven Burger
(Number 1 on the menu) would be my recommendation.